unsuitable that could possibly be devised. In administering bile immediately after food, as is usually done, we most effectually produce the contrary result to what is intended. When bile mingles with gastric juice, it destroys the digestive power of the latter, so that by giving the bile immediately or soon after a meal, we really diminish instead of increase the digestive functions. My experiments, both chemical, and physiological, have led me to propose not only a new method of preparing bile for medicinal purposes, but also to suggest an entirely new mode of administering it. Firstly,--As regards the method of preparation. Nothing can be more simple, and at the same time more effectual. Fresh bile, taken directly from the gall-bladder of the newly killed pig, is filtered, through very porous filter-paper, to free it from mucus; it is then as rapidly as possible evaporated to dryness at a temperature not exceeding 160° Fahr. The bile, as soon as dried, is ready for use. Simple as this operation appears in theory, there are two practical difficulties connected with it--1st, Bile filters very slowly, and consequently little must be put into the filter at a time. 2nd, Bile is rather hygroscopic, and consequently, in order to get it dried quickly, it is necessary {129} to spread it over a large surface. If the bile has been well prepared, that is to say, thoroughly freed by filtration from its ferment mucus, and well dried, it will keep in stoppered bottles for many months without losing any of its active properties. Having stated that bile as at present employed more frequently does harm than good, by retarding instead of hastening the digestive process, I have now to point out the manner in which it may be given with advantage. If bile be administered, as I propose, at the _end_ of stomachal digestion, it will, as in the healthy organism, act on the chyme at the proper moment, and thereby render it fit for absorption. In order still further to ensure the action of the bile being delayed until the food is in a condition favourable to its action, that is to say, until it is ready to pass from the stomach into the duodenum, I have had the bile, as above prepared, put into capsules,[31] which are not readily acted on by the gastric juice. While in the stomach, the capsules, however, swell up from the size of a pea to that of a small gooseberry, and at the same time become so soft that they will readily burst in passing the pylorus into the duodenum, and thereby allow {130} the bile to escape, and come in contact with the food at the precise moment its action becomes requisite in the digestive process.[32] The capsules not only preserve the active properties of the bile for an almost indefinite period, but they have the advantage of most effectually preventing the patient tasting the remedy.